The Heart and Soul of Responsibility
by keyguardian
Summary: Jim Kirk spends some time with the Enterprise before his first mission as official captain


Hi. Well this is my first Star Trek Story. I was thumbing through the section last night and this just hit me and begged to be written. It's probably way OOC but I figured I'd post it up anyway. Hopefully somebody will enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: As with all things on this site all I own is the plot.

And with all that said- I hope you enjoy.

The Heart and Soul of Responsibility

It was the first time that he had been back on board since they had returned (limped really, at half impulse power) home to Earth.

Stepping lightly off of the transporter pad he took a moment to let the tingly feeling of his molecules being re-arranged fade before making his way out into the corridor and the center of the ship.

Walking slowly down the gleaming white corridor, Jim let his mind go over the ships schematics (you know, the ones that he'd spent the entire previous night studying?) again.

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701): A Constitution-class heavy cruiser (synonymous, he'd heard with 'battle-cruiser,' because there was no doubt in any one's mind that the ship and its crew were going to see its fair share of fighting. In fact, it already _had_), and currently the flagship of the Federation.

She (because the Enterprise was most definitely a lady) was approximately twenty-five hundred feet long and six hundred and twenty-five feet wide; capable of housing over a thousand crew members comfortably.

Not, of course, that they were going to have that many. From the crew rosters he'd seen they would be lucky to have close to five-hundred even though everyone (well…almost everyone) from the final battle with Nero had asked (and been) permanently (re)assigned to her.

Even Bones (and wasn't that awesome?) though he had been offered a cushy job planet-side at Starfleet Medical after they had all learned how he had saved Pike's life.

And speaking of Bones….

Taking the left corridor, he made his way down from F deck (which housed the transporter rooms) to G deck (which was where sickbay was located and which he was already making a quick mental note to avoid as much a possible).

Wincing at the echoes his footsteps made he wound his way around what Bones would call his 'domain.' Grimacing slightly, he couldn't help but think about the day that he had woken up in it wanting to do nothing more than curse out his best friend.

Sure his actions had ultimately gotten him on board, but damn, that man was a menace when it came to hypo sprays and his neck.

Had it really only been a few weeks ago?

Sometimes the last few weeks felt to epic to be real.

Shaking off those thoughts, he turned around and headed for the turbo-lift.

"Engineering." He ordered absently, picking a destination at random.

After sixty seconds and with a slight hiss the turbo-lift deposited him into the lower levels of the ship.

Turning around slowly he examined the area. Where the upper levels were all sexy fineness and modern technological comfort at its best the engineering areas were a maze of cat-walks, ladders, tubing and hidden nooks and crannies.

Scotty loved it all.

Making his way towards the back, Jim just stood and took a minute to admire the ships three powerful warp engines. They had been put in yesterday under Scotty's careful scrutiny. They had also been the last of the maintenance repairs to take place because (as Admiral Komack put) warp cores just didn't grow on trees.

Gazing into the inert blue liquid (the same exact color, people always insisted on pointing out, as his eyes) he couldn't help but feel that the heart of Enterprise had been put back into place.

He took a second to appreciate their beauty before once again shaking himself out of his reverie and continuing his tour of the ship.

From engineering (which was on decks N and O in the secondary hull) he took the long way up checking in on each area and deck of the ship; wending his way through the empty crew quarters, the recreation areas, the science labs and through the mess hall (all of which were, according to the ships schematics, in the saucer section of the ship on decks D through F).

Taking a deep breath he couldn't help but think about the silence around him. Apart from the slight humming from the ships minimal life-support systems it was completely silent.

It was a stark difference to the few weeks that it had taken them to return to Earth when the Enterprise had been filled with noise and activity as people (people that he was soon going to in charge of. And wasn't _that_ a scary thought?) had made emergency repairs and seen to the Vulcan passengers as they had made their slow way back to Earth.

He almost preferred it that way; that lively hustle and bustle of people to this darkened, silent shell. Because the warp core might be the heart of the ship, but the people were most definitely her soul.

Leaving the mess hall the way he had entered he continued to make his way through the upper levels and soon found himself stepping out of the lift and onto the bridge.

Stopping just inside the circular room he took another deep breath.

In a few hours this room was going to be a beehive of activity as his hand-picked senior bridge crew (though he'd joked more than once that they had basically picked themselves-and in a least two of the cases that was actually the truth) made the ship ready for her shakedown voyage, but for now it was quiet and dark.

Doing a full three-sixty he mentally named all of the stations.

Communications would be manned by Nyota (and he finally knew her first name whoopee!) Uhura.

Navigation would be handled by Pavel Chekov (and he was really looking forward to hearing some of the announcements that the kid was going to have to do).

Hikaru Sulu would be at the helm as the official ships pilot (and hopefully he wouldn't forget to disengage the external inertial dampener this time. Yes, he _had_ heard about it).

Continuing his turn about the room his eyes alighted upon the science station and he stopped, thinking about his most urgent predicament as the newly appointment (and god had the ceremony really only been two days ago?) captain of the ship.

He still had no XO.

Despite his best efforts he hadn't been able to find another science officer that he had wanted as much as he wanted Spock (and it said something about how much respect the Vulcan had earned from him over the last month. They weren't friends, not even close, but the foundation was there and it was something he wanted to explore) but he hadn't been able to convince the Vulcan to commit.

Spock had been the one exception to the crew assignments. But considering what the half-Vulcan had been through (hell, what his whole race had been through) recently he was trying not to begrudge him his decision to help set up the new Vulcan colony too much.

But it meant that he was currently without a senior science officer _and_ a first officer and with the launch of the Enterprise only a few hours away…

Releasing his gaze from the science console, he made his way to the center of the room and stared down at the Captain's chair.

He resisted the urge to sit down. The chair was comfortable (he knew from experience) but there would be enough time to sit in it later. Right now he had things to do.

Letting his eyes linger on the view screen (and pausing to admire the work that had obviously been put in to remove the giant crack from both the screen and most of the ceiling) he could feel the weight of responsibility (properly given responsibility, not the kind that he had stolen from Spock) settling on his shoulders. Heavy but bearable.

Straightening he walked back to the turbo-lift he ordered it to take him back to deck F where he would transport back down to the surface and then take one of the shuttles back up to the Enterprise with his crew so that he could officially disembark as the ship's captain.

In a few hours Starfleet personnel would once again fill the corridors as everyone got settled into their posts and readied her for launch. She would have heart and soul again. And it would all be his to oversee.

Walking down the dark corridor he thought on it.

The enormity of it would hit him he knew, once they got out of spacedock and he sat down in the command seat.

It would sink in that at twenty-five hundred feet in length, six-hundred twenty-five feet in height and with a crew compliment of a little less than five hundred beings she (and they) were his to care for.

It would sink in and he knew he would be scared (well more scared) out of his mind once the responsibility and enormity of it all really hit him.

But for now at this moment in time it was just him and the Enterprise and, stepping onto the transporter pad, he couldn't help but feel (underneath all the scary responsibility that had been thrust upon him) just a little excited.

The next few years, he thought as the transporter activated, would almost certainly be interesting.


End file.
